Beginnings
by dancingirl87
Summary: The castaways are all students at Oceanic High. What will happen when Sawyer and Kate meet? Skate. Bad summary, but read anyways!
1. Chapter 1

Title: Beginnings

Author: Robyn

Rating: PG-13

Spoilers: None. This is totally unrelated to anything in the Lost world.

Warnings: Maybe some language. Nothing too bad.

Status: WIP

Disclaimer: I don't own any of Lost's characters - they're the property of ABC and Touchstone Television, however I do own the plot.

Author's Note: Just so you know, this has absolutely nothing to do with the island. ;) This idea has been roaming my head for a little while, and I finally have the time to write it. There will eventually be more characters coming into the story. Also, I know this part is a little short, but I hope the chapters will eventually get longer.

**Chapter One**

Kate Austin walked slowly along a gravel path. She pulled a rather large suitcase behind her, had slung an overstuffed duffel bag across her tall but thin frame, and in her free hand clutched a stack of papers. Ahead, Kate could see her unwanted new home.

Oceanic High. What kind of name was that, for a school that was located in northwestern New York state. It was ridiculous, in her opinion.

Kate gave her suitcase a hard tug, and it tipped onto its side. She sniffed, and took a shaky breath. She felt horribly alone. Though the weatherman had predicted a warm, sunny day, it had dawned cloudy, and now seemed as though it would downpour at any second. There wasn't a soul around, even though her parents had assured her she would find some nice person who would help her with her bags. As far as Kate was concerned, the only good thing about going to Oceanic was getting away from her parents.

Shoving the papers she held into the front pocket of her jacket, Kate bent down, righted her suitcase and set off for the front doors. She was only minutes away when the clouds opened.

Instantly drenched to the skin, she groaned aloud and took off for the entrance. She had just reached out to open the door when it was thrown open from the inside and filled by a large frame. Lightning crashed outside and lit up the person in the door. Kate unintentionally let out a startled yell. The teen standing in the doorway had wild, curling hair and small, dark eyes.

"Sorry, sorry. Didn't mean to frighten you. Mr. Locke said to wait for you by the door. He told me you'd be here before the rain hit." With that, the boy picked up her suitcase with ease. It couldn't have been an easy feat because Kate knew that she had packed nearly everything she owned. "Come on in," he invited, and Kate followed him inside, the door slamming shut behind her.

The entrance hall was rather plain. It looked like any school she had ever attended. It wasn't as if her parents had promised her a spectacularly rich school. They had informed her that this was where she was going, unless she wanted to go to... Well, she definitely wasn't going anywhere she didn't deserve, and as far as she was concerned, she didn't deserve juvenile detention. Kate angrily furrowed her brows. She wandered around the hall, trying to distract herself by wondering which doors lead to where.

"So, you are Katherine Austin, right?"

She looked over at the boy. "Kate."

"Sure, sure." He set her suitcase down, and shoved his hands into the pockets of his shorts. "So, where're you from?"

"Nowhere in particular." Not offering any more information, Kate sidled to the huge staircase that led to the floors above. She peered up, but saw no one. "So where is everyone?"

"It's dinner time. The hall'll be full in about twenty minutes time."

She nodded, not _really_ caring, and wandered back to where the boy stood. They stood in awkward silence. She wasn't sure whether or not she should strike up a conversation when she didn't even know the boy's name. "What are we waiting for?" she asked, deciding it was a safe option.

"For me, I suppose." A man's voice rang through the hall, and Kate turned to watch him descend the stairs. He was averaged sized, though completely bald. "Sorry to keep you waiting, Kate, but I lost track of the time." He paused and turned to the large boy. "Hurley, that's all for now. Feel free to go to dinner now."

Hurley left, and Kate watched his large form lumber through the closed doors to their left.

"Welcome to Oceanic High School. You may have noticed that we're not near an ocean?"

Kate snorted and rolled her eyes. "Yeah, I think that the ocean is a couple thousand miles away."

The man nodded. "Yes, you're quite right Kate. And I'm being very rude by not introducing myself. I'm John Locke, school principal."

Kate felt it was unnecessary to introduce herself as well, and settled for pulling her sopping wet papers from her pocket. "Here's my registration stuff. My parents said you'd need it."

"Ah, yes, thank you." Locke strode to a desk that Kate hadn't noticed in her scrutiny of the room, and began clacking on the sleek computer. "I must say, this year is shaping up to be very strange. We're expecting seven new students before classes start."

"Why's that unusual?" Kate interrupted. "Isn't this a great school and all that?"

Locke nodded absently, not looking away from the screen. "Yes, but we don't accept many students. There are many requirements to be accepted, however all of the new students, including you, Kate, fulfilled these requirements. So, we had the task of finding rooming arrangements for seven new students, plus our freshman students." Locke finally set Kate's papers onto the desk and looked up at her.

"The school looks pretty big to me." Kate said, all the while hoping that she wasn't going to have to board with some snotty freshman.

"It's big enough," Lock agreed, pulling an already labeled file from a drawer and stashing Kate's papers inside. He returned to the computer, clicking away, and Kate blew out a breath. She reached up and squeezed the water from her hair. It left a reasonably large puddle on the marble floor, and she bit her lip. It probably wasn't great that she was already making a mess in her first ten minutes at the school. Then again, what did she care. Maybe if she made a mess, they'd kick her out, and save her the trouble of running away.

"Your roommate will be another new student, Sun Kwon. She is an exchange student from Korea."

Crossing her arms over her stomach, Kate wondered whether she would actually prefer the freshman.

Reading her body language, Locke quickly added, "Let me assure you, she speaks fluent English, Kate. There'll be no problems communicating."

"Great," she said, forcing a smile.

"Your room is number twenty three, just up the stairs and to your left. Sun hasn't arrived yet."

"Thanks, Mr. Locke." Kate headed to her suitcase, fully intending to get right up to her room and pass out in what she hoped would be a comfortable bed.

"Kate," he began, but was interrupted when the front door blew open and an angry boy stormed in.

Locke stood up to meet him. The boy, mere inches taller than Locke, stopped in front of him, and impatiently pushed back his dripping wet, blonde hair.

"Mr. Ford. How nice to meet you." Locke held out a hand, but it was ignored, as Kate was.

"Look, I don't wanna be here, okay? So, let's just get this thing underway and..."

She stared at the boy. How intriguing was he? His drawl identified him as a Southern, yet he wore a shirt boasting the Boston Red Sox logo. He had walked in with an angry swagger, but was he angry about? The rain? Coming to school? Was he yet another typical teen who was just angry at the entire world?

And another interesting question, Kate thought, was why she cared so much.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two 

Lying on her back, Kate stared at her bedroom ceiling. It was white. No surprises there. Staring at it, she found that it was smooth, like it had been painted. Her last bedroom ceiling had had those stupid little flaky bits that had fallen whenever anything had gotten remotely close to it. For some reason, thinking about her old bedroom ceiling, and her old bedroom, and her old house, made her a little bit sad.

It wasn't that she missed her parents. No, they were two people she could do without. It wasn't even that she missed her old house, or her old room. It was that, no matter how hard she tried, she hated change. She just wanted everything to be the same.

Lightning flashed outside and Kate counted the seconds until she heard the thunder. Eight. The storm was moving away. Her mind relaxing, Kate allowed her mind to wander. Not surprisingly, it wandered straight to the boy's arrival not long ago.

After his initial outbreak, the boy had stared sullenly at Locke, waiting for a response. When Locke only nodded to himself, and extended a hand, saying, "Papers, please, Mr. Ford," the boy looked somewhat disappointed.

He extracted papers that looked nearly identical to her own and handed them to Locke. As Locke did the same thing he had done for Kate, the boy hooked his thumbs in his belt loops and began to whistle.

Standing in the middle of the hall, she felt somewhat uncomfortable, but resisted the urge to retreat. The need to run, which was almost elemental to her, flared up more often then not. Instead, she tried to figure out what tune he was whistling, but couldn't recognize it.

"What's your name, Freckles?" She turned to shoot a look at him, and he sent her a lazy smile that made her heart skip.

"Kate," she responded after a pause. The only sounds in the room were Locke clicking on the computer and the rain pounding outside. "What's yours?"

"James. But call me Sawyer," he told her, a dark look crossing his face.

She tilted her head, curious. "Why Sawyer? You like Mark Twain or something?"

He laughed softly, shaking his head. "Not exactly."

"What? Is it something your parents made up?"

"My parents are dead."

Silence once again overcame the room. She had no idea what to say. Should she say anything, or was he the sort of person who preferred you said nothing. Would 'I'm sorry' be too superficial? She wasn't really sorry; she hadn't known his parents, and she didn't know him. Should she change the topic? Should she make a stupid joke?

Fortunately, Locke stood up at this moment and announced, "Your roommate is Charlie Pace. He had already arrived, and is in the dining hall at the moment."

"Great," Sawyer said, without any enthusiasm. "Where's my room?"

"You're in room forty-two, which is up two levels and to the right." Locke came around the desk. "Classes start tomorrow morning. Your homerooms will be posted on a notice board here, in the main hall, and you will receive your timetables in that class. Breakfast is served from six-thirty until eight-fifteen. You must be in your homeroom by eight-thirty." He smiled at each of them, and Kate smiled hesitantly back. "There will be a list of school rules in each of your rooms."

Locke had then made a move to carry Kate's suitcase up the stairs, but she leapt in front of him. "I've got it," she assured him, readjusting her duffel bag and grabbing the handle of her suitcase. "Thanks."

"Okay. Well then, good night, James, Kate." Leaving them alone, Locke exited through an obscure door to their left.

Kate dragged her suitcase to the bottom of the steps and started to carry it up. It was wrenched out of her hands a few seconds later, however, and she looked up to see Sawyer carrying her own suitcase, and his, past her and onto the landing. What was with all the guys here? Did they all think she couldn't carry a suitcase? Making a face to herself, she quickly jogged up the remaining steps.

"Thanks," she said, giving him a smile.

"Night, Freckles," he replied, continuing up the stairs.

"Night," she echoed.

She had pulled her stuff down the hallway, until she wound up at room twenty-three. Then, she'd unceremoniously dumped her clothes in some random drawers, tossed her cosmetic bag into the adjoining bathroom, and fallen onto the bed, expecting to fall asleep right away.

Yet, here she was, nearly two hours later, still wide-awake.

It was almost nine o'clock. She knew that dinner had finished downstairs from the increasing noise outside her room. It was growing darker and darker outdoors each minute and the rain showed no signs of letting up.

Annoyed with herself, Kate sat up in bed and leaned against the headboard. She reached up and twisted her long, brown curls on top of her head, then let them fall around her shoulders.

The noise in the hallway suddenly escalated and Kate hopped off her bed, curious. The words sounded foreign to her ears, but the tone was very clear. Someone was angry. Huddled by the door, Kate put her ear near the crack, as though that would allow her to hear more easily.

The door suddenly swung open and, cursing the person on the other side, she leapt back to avoid getting hit in the head. A Korean girl stormed into the room, shaking her head and muttering under her breath. She yanked a suitcase in behind her and slammed the door.

Kate watched as the girl stalked to the other bed. She flopped down on it, looked around the room, and finally noticed Kate standing near the door, her mouth hanging open.

"Oh. Hello." The girl, who Kate assumed was her roommate, sent her a hesitant smile. "I am Sun."

Unsure of what had just happened in the hallway, and where all of her anger had gone, Kate introduced herself, and then sat down on her bed. "So, you're from Korea, right?" When Sun nodded, she continued talking. "Are you just here for school, or did you move here?"

"We are just here this year for school."

We? Kate wondered. "Who's we?"

Sun opened her mouth, either to respond or yell, but a knock at the door interrupted their conversation. The door opened and a blonde poked her head in.

"Hi," she said in a bored voice. "Can I come in?"

Kate shrugged. "Sure."

The girl stepped into the room, leaving the door open behind her. "I'm Shannon Rutherford. I'm supposed to welcome you and whatnot. So, welcome."

She sounded so bored that Kate wondered why anyone would choose such an uninterested person to be the welcoming committee. Shannon leaned against the doorframe and examined her nails, waiting for a response.

Kate stared at her for a moment before uttering, "Um, thanks."

"Thank you," Sun said, pushing hair behind her ears.

Shannon peered at Sun, then exclaimed, "Hey, you were the one who was arguing with that crazy Korean guy. Is her your boyfriend or something?"

A faint blush tinged Sun's cheeks. "Or something," she agreed, ducking her head.

Shannon pursed her lips. Kate, unsure of what exactly that meant, said, "Well, we should get to bed."

Sun got up from the bed and began fussing with her things. Kate smiled at Shannon, who gave her a snooty look.

"Sure," the blonde replied easily, "I'll let you get to bed. If you need anything, just find me." She said all of this in a tone that told Kate if she ever tried to find Shannon, she wouldn't be welcome. "I'm right down the hall."

"Great."

Shannon let herself out, Sun slipped into the bathroom and Kate found herself alone for a moment. She took a deep breath, sighed, and fell back onto her bed.

This time, she was asleep in minutes. Not even the insistent pounding on the door some hours later could wake her.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three**

Kate walked into the dining hall the next morning well rested and wide awake. She joined the line waiting for their breakfast, and when she had a tray full of cold cereal, toast and scrambled eggs, she gazed around the large room for a place to sit.

Even though it was the first day of school, everyone had their own groups, it seemed, that she wasn't privy to. Though, from meeting Shannon last night, she should have known that there would be cliques.

The hall was filled with long tables and benches. Clusters of students sat at random intervals at each table. The tables all seemed fairly full, and Kate wondered if there was anywhere to sit. Her eyes finally caught on a nearly empty bench at the table nearest the doors. A blonde girl sat there alone, and Kate headed in her direction.

"Hi. Can I sit here?" Kate set her tray on the table, and slipped onto the bench.

The girl looked up from her tray. "Oh, sure."

Smiling gratefully, Kate thanked her and began eating her breakfast.

"Are you new here?" she asked Kate, spooning up cereal.

Kate nodded. "Yeah. Are you? I love your accent. Australian, right?"

She nodded. "Uh-huh. I just got here this morning. I'm Claire, by the way. Claire Littleton."

"Kate Austin." Kate bit her lip, glancing uncertainly at Claire. "So…"

"You want to know how I got it, or when it's due, right?" Claire looked up at Kate, then gave her a slight smile to let her know she wasn't angry. "It's okay. Most people stare."

"I didn't mean to stare, it's just that-" Kate broke off, unsure. "How old are you?"

"I'll be seventeen in December."

"Wow," Kate breathed. "That's really-"

"Young, I know. But it'll be okay." Claire paused to gulp down orange juice. "And you?" When Kate stared blankly at her, she added, "How old are you?"

"Sixteen. My birthday's October 15th."

They ate in comfortable silence for a few moments. Kate studied Claire as she ate. She was very fair, with wavy blonde hair and blue eyes. Built on the tiny side, the addition of an extra thirty pounds gave her the look of a slightly oblong beach ball. She had a very open face, and when she caught Kate studying her, she smiled shyly.

"What?"

"Nothing," Kate quickly replied. "Um. When are you due?"

Claire smiled a little bit. "Next month."

Kate grinned at her. "Wow. That's great!"

"What's great?"

Kate recognized the Southern drawl right away, but turned around in her seat and feigned surprise. "Oh. Morning, Sawyer."

"Sleep all right, Freckles?" he asked, almost as though he knew something she didn't.

She looked curiously at him. "Yeah, I slept just fine. How about you?"

"Great. Mind if I sit down?" Without waiting for an answer, he plopped down beside Kate, glanced over his shoulder, and then began eating her leftover eggs.

"Hey!" she protested. "What if I wanted those?"

"What ifs won't get you anywhere."

Kate made a face at him. "What does that even mean?" He ignored her and continued shoveling food into his mouth at a surprisingly fast rate.

Claire giggled. "I'm Claire."

Sawyer looked up from Kate's eggs. "Sawyer."

"Are you new as well, then?" she asked.

"Right off the turnip truck." A dark look crossed his face. "Along with some other real turnips," he added sarcastically.

"I love turnip, you know," a British accent responded from behind Sawyer. "They're great."

Sawyer's eyes grew almost comically wide, and the fork he had been holding clattered onto the plate. Kate snorted, then turned around to see who had interrupted them.

"Get lost, hobbit."

Kate gaped at Sawyer. "Sawyer!"

"What?" He looked at her and spread his arms. "The kid's short."

"That's no reason to call a total stranger a hobbit."

Sawyer gave her a little sneer. "Well, it just so happens that Jiminy Cricket isn't a total stranger. He's my roommate."

The idea of tough Sawyer rooming with the boy standing in front of her was insane. She couldn't imagine two more different people. A tiny giggle escaped her lips, and Sawyer glared at her.

"I'm Charlie," he introduced himself. He grinned at Claire, who smiled back hesitantly.

"I'm leaving," Sawyer announced, getting up from his seat. "Come on, Freckles, we'd best be getting off to our homeroom."

As Kate had yet to check the list of homerooms, she had no clue if Sawyer was telling the truth, or if it was just a ruse to get away from his roommate. When she didn't get up from her seat right away, he grabbed her arm and pulled her to her feet.

Trying to ignore the tingles shooting up her arm, Kate shook him off and stepped away from the table. "I'll see you later, Claire. If you need anything, I'm in room twenty three."

Claire nodded, and Kate walked away from the table, Sawyer leading the way.

"What was that all about?" Charlie asked, sitting in Kate's vacated seat. He picked up a bit of toast and nibbled on the crust.

"I have no idea," Claire replied, smothering a laugh. "I'm Claire. Claire Littleton."

"Charlie Pace. Sawyer there's my roommate. I don't think he likes me."

Claire faked a look of shock. "Really. What makes you think that?"

Sawyer and Kate were walking down a long hallway, side by side. It was fairly crowded with students chattering noisily.

"What is _our_ homeroom, anyways?" Kate asked, sticking her hands in her pockets.

"Math," he replied, making a face. "I hate math. Figures it's gotta be right in the morning."

"I like math," Kate responded, sighing a little bit.

Silence descended, and they walked in companionable quiet. They were nearly to their classroom when Sawyer broke the hush.

"So, Blondie's huge, huh? I wonder how she got in here."

Kate glared at Sawyer. "Hey. That's rude."

"It's not rude, Freckles. It's true." They turned a corner, nearing their homeroom. "I mean, she is huge. Where'd they get a uniform to fit her?"

While she gaped at him, Sawyer entered the classroom. "You coming or what?" he asked.

Ignoring him, she strode inside and took a seat that was surrounded by people, so he didn't have a chance of sitting near her. She pulled out her books and ignored the people around her.

"Hey, look. An empty desk," Sawyer drawled from beside her.

She looked up from her things and saw him grinning at her and leaning back in the chair right next to hers. A bright fluttery feeling started in her stomach, but she pushed it down. No matter how hot he was, she wasn't starting anything.

She turned her head away and stared determinedly out the window, ignoring the cheerful whistling coming from the seat beside her.


	4. Chapter 4

Thank you for all of the great reviews. Sorry for the long wait. Hopefully the chapters will now be more frequent!

**Chapter Four**

After classes ended that day, Kate changed into her swimsuit and headed to the back of the building. The pool was deserted and so she dived into the water, swimming a few laps for fun, and then floating on her back, thinking.

Her first day, while being entirely uneventful, had been pretty exciting. After math, she had had physics and art, both of which had been fairly interesting. At lunch she had eaten with Claire, discussing lots of baby things as well as the classes they shared. After lunch she had gone to English and then had met up with Claire, and annoyingly enough, Sawyer, in a class called Organizational Leadership.

There had only been ten people present, and one who had yet to arrive. It seemed that all of the new students had been plunked in the class along with random students who either needed a bird course or wanted to meet new people. Kate and Claire, closely followed by Sawyer and Charlie, had taken seats in the back of the room.

The class had the potential to be something great, Kate thought, paddling herself around. It was all about setting goals and reaching them, and planning for your future. On the first day however, they had played trust games, directed by their teacher, Mr. Jarrah. Sayid, as they'd been instructed to call him, was foreign, and had apparently been in some sort of military, secret service type thing, so Kate had heard.

After taking attendance, he'd led the class into the gymnasium. A table had been placed in the middle of the room.

"We are going to start off the year with trust falls," he informed them. "Each student will climb onto the table and fall into their classmates arms. This will, I believe, be a good way to become united as a class."

Sayid had showed them where to cluster, and Kate had joined her fellow students at the foot of the table. A boy she didn't recognize volunteered to go first. He clambered up onto the table and faced away from them.

"Introduce yourself, young man," Sayid called.

"My name is Michael Dawson." With that, he fell backwards, confident that his new classmates would catch him. They did, and the class continued to climb and fall.

Everyone had done it, excluding Claire (Sayid had refused to allow her to even climb onto the table), Shannon, who had climbed onto the table and stood there for ten minutes before stepping down, and a boy that Kate didn't know, but Sun did. She gave him a dirty look when he shook his head and refused to move from his spot.

Kate flipped onto her back and lay spread-eagled in the water. When she had fallen from the table, eyes tightly shut, her stomach had flipped and she had been positive that no one was going to catch her.

But then she had stopped falling and warily opened her eyes to find Sawyer's annoyingly handsome face grinning down into hers.

"'Fraid we weren't gonna catch you?" he asked setting her on her feet.

She glared at him, annoyed at how well he could read her. "No."

He had given her a knowing glance and had been about to say something else, but Charlie had popped up behind him, pelting him with questions. The bell had rung and Kate had made her escape.

Now she let her feet touch the bottom and turned to swim to the ladder. She stopped in mid-stroke when she saw that someone else was in the room, dipping his feet into the warm water.

"Hi," she said, startled.

"Hey. How's the water?"

"Um, fine," she said, seeing as his feet were in the water too. "No offense, but who are you?"

He looked faintly embarrassed. "Sorry, I'm Jack Shepard. You must be new, right?" he asked, as though anyone who didn't know his name couldn't have gone to school there before. He pulled his feet out of the water and stood up on the edge of the pool.

Kate stared up at him, treading water. He was good looking with thick, dark brown hair, a muscular body, and tanned skin. "Yeah, I'm Kate."

"Did you just get here today? You found the pool pretty fast," he remarked, sliding his hands into his pockets.

"I got here last night."

Jack nodded and there was a moment of silence. Kate bit her lip, and stared at the water shimmering in the fading sunlight.

"So, you're in what? Eleven?"

"No, I'm in grade twelve. How about you?" At Jack's nod, she continued. "What are you taking?"

"Mostly sciences, and some math. I'm going to be a doctor," he informed her, a proud look crossing his face. "Oh, and English and a class called Origami Leading or something."

"Organizational Leadership?" she asked, a smile twitching around the corners of her mouth.

He grinned, and Kate smiled back. "Yeah, that's the one. Are you taking it too?"

She nodded. "Yeah, I didn't really choose my classes. I just got them. They seem okay though, so far at least."

"Have you met anyone yet?" Jack asked. Kate got the feeling that he was hinting at something, or rather someone, and wrapped her arms across her bare stomach in the water and shook her head.

"Not really. Just some people in my classes and stuff."

"Now, now, Freckles, I'm just some person in your class?" Sawyer stepped out of the shadows and Kate had to wonder just how long he'd been standing there. "I really thought we had something going. You know, a connection."

While she couldn't really tell if he was being sarcastic or telling the truth, she could read the loathing all over Sawyer's face. It was clear that he didn't like Jack.

Jack stared at Sawyer, a look of confusion and concentration on his face. Sawyer stared back at him, contempt clear in his expression. Kate bit her lip, watching the two. She felt strangely out of the scene, as though she was just a spectator, floating in the water. After staring at each other for longer than Kate felt necessary, Sawyer stuck out his hand, and gave Jack a grin that wasn't exactly friendly.

"Sawyer."

"Jack."

They shook hands, a little too hard, and Kate took that moment to pull herself out of the pool and wrap herself in her towel.

"So, Kate, could I walk you to your room?" Jack asked, turning to smile at her.

She bit her lip. She didn't really want to lead him on. It was clear that his head barely fit onto his shoulders, but on the other hand, it was an escape from Sawyer and his arrogant, male attitude. "Sure, just let me get my stuff."

To get her bag she had to walk right past the two boys. It seemed like they both watched her the entire way, and as she squeezed past the miniscule amount of space Sawyer left between him and the wall, she could have sworn she heard him whisper, "freckles everywhere."

The next morning, Jack caught up with Kate in the dining hall, this time followed by what looked like a band of followers. She watched him walk, though it was more like strutting, into the dining hall, pose in the doorway while his groupies caught up, and then head for her.

"Morning, Kate," he greeted, completely ignoring Claire, who was sitting with her. "How'd you sleep?"

"Oh, fine," she replied, smothering giggles, and avoiding Claire's eyes. She knew that if they locked glances she would never stop laughing. "How about you?"

"Great, great." His voice trailed off, and he glared at one of the guys standing behind him. The guy immediately scurried off and returned in what seemed like seconds, carrying a plate of whole-wheat toast. Jack sat down beside Kate, almost a little too close for comfort. "What class do you have now?"

Staring determinedly at the table, she pulled her schedule from her bag and studied it critically. "I've got Sociology first, and then double English."

Jack nodded seriously. He ignored the group of people clustered behind them and said, "Those sound very interesting. Of course, I have advanced Calculus and Biology this morning, so there was no hope of us having a class together, but maybe another day."

Kate wasn't sure whether to be insulted or relieved. She settled for relieved and said, "Well, we'd better get going. Class starts in ten minutes."

Jack looked around the table, confused, and finally noticed Claire. He stared at her and Claire stared back, until one of Jack's groupies sniggered, and Kate stood up angrily.

"See you later, Jack. Come on, Claire, let's go." She grabbed her bag and stalked away, fuming.

What a jerk, she thought. He figured he was so great, just because he was going to be a doctor. And he thinks he's so smart, just because he takes _advanced_ calculus. Idiot!

"And the way he looked at you!"

Claire looked up, startled. "What?" she asked through a mouthful of toast.

"Did I say that out loud? Oops, I was just thinking." Kate looked sheepish as they rounded the corner. "So where's Charlie this morning?"

Claire shrugged. "I don't know. Why?"

"No reason." Kate didn't bring up the name of a certain British boy's roommate. "Oh, hey, Sun," she said as her own roommate rushed up to the two girls.

"Kate. I need your help." Sun's face was a mask of worry and pain. "I don't know what to do. Please."

Kate stared at her, unsure. "What's wrong? What happened?"

Sun glanced around the crowded hallway, obviously uneasy. "I cannot explain here. Please, come with me."

Kate looked at Claire. "You go to class. I'll be there soon."

Sun smiled gratefully at her, though it looked more like a grimace to Kate, and nearly ran down the hallway. She jogged to keep up with the quick Korean girl.

At the end of the corridor, Sawyer watched as Kate was approached by the foreign chick, who looked scared out of her wits. They took off, leaving Blondie to go to class.

Shrugging, he followed them down the hallway. This had to be more interesting then Calculus.


End file.
